It’s been a while…

Every time a big time Republican turns out to be gay an Angel gets its wings. I really believe that. How bout Senator Larry “Wide Stance” Craig? Did anyone else find themselves in a bathroom stall attempting to see just how wide a stance it takes to get your foot underneath the next stall? I did, and since I’m not particularly tall, I think I pulled a hamstring. There’s no way could I have pulled off the foot tapping either. Larry Craig, my friends, is a professional, like Reverend Haggard, whom my friend Tim dubbed “the world’s biggest bottom over.” Who would’ve thought that a Republican who hated gays would like to hook up with men in public restrooms at the Minneapolis Airport of all places (I’ve been there…EW!). It’s bad enough that people go to the bathroom on the seat, but come on. Early in my youth I made a comment, I think I was 17 or so, that homosexuals should be allowed to marry and be accepted wholly in society just so people would stop hooking up in bathrooms across America. Apparently the scribbling on the stall that said, “For a good time vote for Senator Craig, and be here 7pm on the 29th” was not a joke after all.

I think it’s one thing to be in the heat of passion with your partner of choice and “lower the health code of a restaurant” if you will, and it’s fun because you do it once. However, this is a culture…and why Democrats haven’t mentioned this is beyond me. What does the Democratic Party need after the Page Scandal, Senator Vitter and his whores, and the good Reverend? Does President Bush have to sacrifice a Jew baby in the rose garden? Get with it! Speaking of Senator Vitter, why is it ok for him to cheat on his wife and pay for sex yet Senator Craig had Idaho, and the Senate, demanding his resignation? This is a sad statement for America: paying for sex is more acceptable than homosexuality. If I can just get American Express to understand that the next time I’m at the Bunny Ranch, my outlook on that subject just might change.

TITLE FIGHT:

iced decaf triple grande five pump soy no whip Mocha vs. black coffee from McDonald’s

To many, especially those of us who live on either coast, rural America consists of the states that you fly over on your way from LA to New York or vice versa. People on the coasts regard rural American folk as ignorant, whereas the latter adamantly believe that ‘coasties’ are arrogant and out of touch. Since I’ve lived in both places, I believe I can say that both of these statements aren’t just true for each group, they’re actually true statements in general. People on the coasts, politically speaking, are completely out of touch. They have no idea what goes on in the land where corn comes from. They don’t know how these people speak and behave, and they rely solely on media constructions of the “values vote” to inform their thinking on rural people. Rural Americans, who also focus through the media, find big-city livin to be something alien to them… I mean, who the fuck pays $1,000 in rent for a studio apartment anyway?

I used to think that the “liberal” lifestyle was kind of a myth and more of a Republican red-meat for the masses statement. Then I moved to Seattle and traveled more extensively on the West coast. First off, when I told people I worked in politics I got a completely different reaction than I got when I lived in the Midwest. The first response was a hesitant, “What party do you work for?” When I replied that I worked for the Democratic Party there was first a sigh of relief and then a 15 minute explanation of everything that I and the Party was doing wrong…basically someone reciting what they read in the online version of the New York Times. Seattle, for all its political knowledge, is an entire city of people who think alike but adamantly refuse to admit it…people here like to think that their opinion is unique. It’s not unique, Maureen Dowd has already said it, but it took her longer to get to the point. This homogeneity of opinion is different from rural America.

States like Ohio, (and hell, even Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, basically all states with a decent Big City/Small Town mix) are more diverse than places such as LA, San Fran, New York, Chicago, Boston, and Seattle. First off, these states are more diverse, politically speaking, because in order to win these states in an election (a statewide election) you have to win more than certain cities. Ohio, for all its flaws in 2004, proved that if you win 4 of the top 5 cities and lose the rural vote then you lose the state, and ultimately the election. Same goes for Michigan, PA, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky etc etc etc.

Rural Americans are a lot more political than people think, but their politics are far more reserved. They have better things to do than protest about anything (therefore, they know that the people who are protesting are nut jobs). However, if you sit them down (which I’ve done in focus groups), the political animal within the 55-year-old farmer/police dispatch man comes out of the woodwork. I find the rural American voter to be, honestly, less informed than the coastie voter, but this is a good thing. There’s often too much information out there, and people on the coasts, I feel, are often over-informed. Anyone can watch the news, or read the news, and get the answers that they want. I think people that casually read headlines, or even the local paper on occasion, might be as informed as someone who avidly reads and watches the news every night. Sure, they may not be able to write a dissertation on a given topic, but you get the gist.

However, the rural American voter is complex. Here’s a list of common responses I’ve gotten from these marvels of the political community:

For 23 years The Rodale Institute in Kutztown Pennsylvania has been conducting an experiment which is gradual yielding some dramatic conclusions about how organic farming techniques, if widely adopted, may alter what is happening to our planet. On 12 acres, The Rodale Farming Institute Systems Trial® or FST, has been comparing three agricultural management systems side-by-side: one conventional, one legume-based organic, and one manure-based-organic. In 23 years the two organic systems show an increase of soil carbon of 15-28%, the conventional system showed no increase.

When carbon is taken out of the atmosphere and stored for long periods of time it is called sequestration and it was one of the goals of the Kyoto protocol to increase sequestration as well as cut down on carbon emissions. While such sequestration will not solve the problem of global warming, it can help buy us precious time to overcome the technical and political barriers to rapid reduction in carbon emissions. But how significant could this effect be?

According to Paul Hepperly, the Research Manager at Rodale, organic farming techniques they have tested can sequester about 1,000 lbs of carbon per acre equivalent to about 3,670 lbs of carbon dioxide with cover crops and rotation under organic full till management. But in a recent interview he also stated that “…there is additional opportunity to combine our system with compost and no tillage to get substantially more carbon sequestration or fixation, up to 3 times our previous calculations.”

Marlatt’s XIII Brood is a variant of the 17-year species of cicada specific to Northern Illinois, emerging in numbers that often exceed 1 ½ million per acre. In 1990, their last appearance aboveground, residents used snow shovels to clear them from their driveways, rakes to clear them from their yards. Dogs gorged themselves on the nutrient-rich corpses and slept the sleep of the well fed. This summer of 2007 was their year, and a joke common amongst the blue-collar workers makes plain a social trend occurring in much of rural America.

What did one cicada say to the other?
Where did all these Mexicans come from?

The area, historically white middle-class, has seen significant changes since the parents of this year’s hatch left the soil in 1990. Indeed, across the country time has made notions of rural America outdated, with demographic trends swinging in unprecedented directions. The Rockwellian notion of white American families bringing up crops on modest family farms in the ruralities of our continental 48 is no longer valid. Agriculture accounts for only 6.5% of the rural labor force. The lion’s share of agricultural land is tied up in industrial farming; large acreages held by single farmers. Other industries now employ the bulk of those living outside metro areas, with manufacturing accounting for a stout 12.4% of the rural workforce. To anyone who was around to see the last batch of Marlatt’s XIII, one thing is clear; the economic and ethnic face of rural America is changing.

A skinny, hunched shell of a man clad in tattered clothing is weaving through the empty streets, talking to himself and twisting his hands together. He picks up a discarded cigarette butt and lights it with trembling hands, then continues on his way, his movements jerky and discombobulated, like a marionette. Later that night, he will break into a car and steal the radio in order to continue to fund his chemical habit.

Upon hearing such a description, most Americans would probably think of a gritty urban scene in some inner city neighborhood. However, this is actually a scene from small town America, where the ever-growing scourge of methamphetamine abuse has dramatically increased crime and health issues in formerly tranquil communities. The ease of producing and distributing meth among the sprawling mountains, forests, and fields of the US has continued to thwart governmental efforts to cut back production of the drug and its use among young Americans.

Of all the major presidential candidates from both parties, John Edwards’ is probably the one whose persona draws most heavily on his rural origins. This has been felt in his Iowa campaign, as you can see on his campaign website (link provided below). But what are Edwards’ real ideas for our country’s small towns, small farms, and other rural areas? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Where does Edwards show imagination and insight, and where does he disappoint?

The Edwards plan - “Restoring Hope to Rural America” - can be found in its entirety here.

In the past fifty years, the boom in biotechnology has facilitated a rise in large-scale industrial farms in America, squeezing small-scale farmers off the land. Yet the nation’s giant swing toward industrial agriculture comes amidst protests by environmentalists, scientists, and farmers that small-scale family farming is in not only the most efficient, nutritious, and sustainable way to feed America, but is key to revitalizing its rural communities.

Ironically, nothing illustrates this point better than industrial agriculture’s baby, Roundup. Since its introduction by Monsanto in 1973, Roundup has become the most widely used herbicide in the US, with nearly 90 million pounds used annually on US farms. Though Roundup was its flagship product, Monsanto is also the world’s largest manufacturer of genetically-engineered seed, including its famed, patented, and prolific “Roundup Ready” crops that are modified to resist the herbicide.

Now, after a quarter century of submission, nature is finally taking its recourse against Roundup. Weeds resistant to Roundup have begun appearing throughout the northeastern US, the Midwest, and California, alarming both farmers and Monsanto that the product is growing less effective. There are few readily-available alternatives to Roundup because it has so long dominated the industry, so now many scientists are calling for restraint in using it and Roundup Ready crops. Amid concerns that resistance signals a new era of “superweeds,” more dangerous herbicides, and genetically-reengineered crops, the crisis highlights the many dangers of industrialization to American agriculture.

In September, the Seminal will be tackling issues important to rural America, from farm policy to the drug problem. Stay tuned for our new monthly feature starting September 3rd.

In addition, we will be holding a monthly speaker series related to our current topic in Washington D.C. The first in this series will take place on Saturday, September 22nd from 11 am - 12:30 pm at the Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. at Macomb Street, N.W.

We are busy lining up the speakers as I type, and as soon as we get confirmations I’ll post some information and biographies.

We are all very excited to start bridging the online and offline worlds, and I hope our readers in the D.C. area can attend on the 22nd. Feel free to leave a comment if you are planning on coming!